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LITHOBOLIA 



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THE STCME-THKOWING DEVIL. 



By John Ward Dean, A.M. 



(~\N Sunday night, June 11, 1682, showers of stone were thrown, 
apparently by invisible hands, against the house of George 
Walton at Great Island, now New Castle, N. H. These and similar 
manifestations continued in this vicinity for about three months 
into the month of September. Cotton Mather in his Magnalia, vol. 
ii., stereotyped edition, page 453, gives an account of this affair; 
and, in 1698, a tract concerning it was printed at London, England, 
with this title : 

Lithobolia, or the Stone-throwing Devil. Being an Exact and True 
Account (by way of Journal) of the various actions of infernal Spirits or 
(Devils Incarnate) Witches or both; and the great Disturbance and Amaze- 
ment they gave to George Waltons Family at a place called Great Island 
in the Province of New Hantshire in New England, chiefly in throwing about 
(by an Invisible hand) Stones, Bricks and Brick-bats of all Sizes, with 
several other things, as Hammers, Mauls, Iron-Crows, Spits, and other 
domestic Utensils, as came into their Hellish Minds, and this for the space 
of a Quarter of a Year. By R. C. Esq., who was a sojourner in the same 
Family the whole Time, and an Ocular Witness of those Diabolical In- 
ventions. The Contents hereof being manifestly known to the Inhabitants 
of that Province and persons of other Provinces, and is upon record in his 
Majesties Council-Court held for that Province. London: Printed and 
are to be sold by E. Whitlook, near Stationers-Hall, 1698.* 

The following is " The Epistle Dedicatory " prefixed to the tract : 

To 
The Most Honoured 

Mart. Liunley, Esq., 
Sir 

As the subsequent Script deserves not to be called a Book, so these precedent 
Lines presume not to be a Dedication : But, Sir, it is an occasion that I am 

* There are copies of this tract in the Lenox Library, New York City, the Harvard 
College Library, Cambridge, Mass., and the John Carter Brown Library, Providence, R. I. 
From the printed catalogue of the last named library, I copy the following collation: 
"4to. Title one leaf, 'Epistle Dedicatory' one leaf, 'Poem to R. F. Esq.' one page, \ 
Text 3-16." / 

The " Poem to R. F. Esq." is signed R. C. Query— Who was R. F. ? 






*V2 

ambitious to lay liold on, to discover to You by this Epitome (as it were) the 
propension and inclination I have to give a more fit and perfect demonstration 
of the Honour. Love and Service, I own (as I think myself oblig'd) to have for 
You. To Sober, Judicious and well Principled Persons, such as your Self, plain 
Truths are much more agreeable than the most Charming and surprising Bo- 
mancc or Novel, with all the strange turns and events. That this is of the first 
sort (as I have formerly upon record attested) I do now avow and protest ; yet 
neither is it less strange than true and so may be capable of giving you some 
Diversion for an hour. For this interruption of your more serious ones, I 
cannot doubt your candor and clemency, in pardoning it, that so well know 
(and do most sensibly acknowleclg) your high Worth and Goodness : and that 
the Relation I am Dignified with, infers a mutual Patronization. 

Sir, I am 

Your most Humble Servant 
R. C. 

The Bibliotheca Britannica by Robert Watt, M.D. (London 1824) 
gives as the author of this tract the name of Richard Chamberlain, and so 
do subsequent works. George H. Moore, LL.D., who has furnished me 
with a copy of the preceding dedication, writes that the tract is ascribed 
to Richard Chamberlain in the printed catalogue of the British Museum of 
1814, as well as in that now in the course of publication. 

Richard Chamberlain, to whom the tract is attributed, arrived in New 
Hampshire from England in December, 1680, bringing the King's com- 
mission appointing him secretary of that province. This office he held till 
1686, when New Hampshire Ceased for a time to have a separate government.* 
After the organization of the new government of New England, President 
Dudley and his Council appointed him, June 10, 1686, clerk of the courts 
of the province of New Hampshire.! He probably returned to England, 
but at what time I cannot decide. 

Internal evidence supports Chamberlain's claim to the authorship of the 
tract. The title page of Lithobolia states that the facts related in the 
tract are " upon record in his Majestie's Council Court held for that [i. e. 
the New Hampshire] Province ; " while in the dedication the author states 
that he has " formerly upon record attested " to these fac^. As Chamber- 
lain was clerk of the council, any entries upon the council records would 
be attested by him. In the body of the tract it is stated that the au- 
thor in 1682 was in America "in his then Majesty's Service." Cham- 
berlain at that time held his commission from the then reigning sovereign 
Charles II. 

* Edward Cranfield, the Lieutenant Governor of the Province, left New Hampshire May 
15, 1685 (N. H. Prov. Papers, i. 585), a year before the close of the New Hampshire govern- 
ment, and was succeeded by Walter Barcfoote as Deputy Governor. A full biographical 
sketch of Gov. Cranfield, by Jacob Bailey Moore, is printed in the American Quarterly Reg- 
ister, vol. xv. pp. 163-5. 

f New Hampshire Provincial Papers, vol. i. pp. 593 and 600. 



The dedication may furnish a clew to the English history of Secretary 
Chamberlain, or at least to the family to which he belonged. "Mart. 
Lumley, Esq.," to whom the tract is dedicated, was probably Martyn Lum- 
ley, son of Sir Martyn Lumley, the first baronet of that name, of Great 
Bardfield in Essex. Martyn Lumley, Esq., was bapt. at Great Bardfield, 
March 27, 1662, and married for his second wife in 1695, Elizabeth, 
daughter of Richard Chamberlayn of Gray's Inn. In August, 1702, on 
the death of his father, he succeeded to the baronetcy. He died at Great 
Bardfield, and was buried there, Jan. 19, 1710.* Is it not safe to con- 
jecture that Elizabeth Chamberlain who married Lumley was a daughter, 
sister or other near relative to the author of Lithobolia, who, in his dedica- 
tion, refers to " the Relation I am Dignified with " as a motive for dedicat- 
ing the work to Lumley. 

Richard Chamberlayne, the father of Mrs. Elizabeth Lumley, who, if 
not the New Hampshire secretary was probably related to him, was " son 
and heir apparent to William C. of London, gen." He was admitted to 
Gray's Inn, "6 May 1651, called to the bar 11 Nov. 1659, ancient 17 April 
1676.""|" Whether he was or not of the same family as John Chamberlaine 
of London, an abstract of whose will is printed in the January number of 
the Register (ante, pp. 89-91), I cannot say. 

The tract entitled Lithobolia was reprinted in the Historical Magazine, 
New York, November, 1861, vol. v. pages 321-7. The same magazine, 
May 1862, vol. vi. pages 159-60, reprints from the Portsmouth Journal, 
January 18, 1862, an article by the Rev. Lucius Alden of New Castle, N. 
H., furnishing information about some of the persons and localities men- 
tioned in the tract. A very amusing version of the story related in the 
tract is to be found in Albee's History of New Castle, N. H., pp. 43-47. 

* Wotton's English Baronetage, 1741, vol. ii. page 154; Miscellanea Genealogica et Her- 
aldica, edited by J. J. Howard, LL.D., New Series, vol. i. page 474. 

f Register of Admissions to Gray's Inn in part 13 of Collectanea Genealogica, edited by 
Joseph Foster. 



Reprinted from the New England Historical and Genealogical Register for April, 1889. 



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